Telecasters

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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scottme
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Re: Telecasters

Post by scottme » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:37 am

Nice teles Doug. That 72 would great with an F hole and WRPUs!  :P

Were those rescued and restored pound puppies?

My nice 89 Standard Tele is going on consignment tomorrow. I really hope I don't end up regretting it, but I'd like some other goodies...

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Re: Telecasters

Post by fullerplast » Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:04 am

Were those rescued and restored pound puppies?
Long story:

Yes, in a way. Neither one of them were too bad off though. The '72 had some incorrect parts that I chased down and replaced. I wouldn't have bothered, except it's original finish and I felt it was a shame for it to be a Partscaster. I also chased down that original case for it.

The '76 was a donor for another '76 and a '75 that I have. I sold the other '76. The '75 is a refin and routed for a neck HB (ala Keef) but it had the original case, bridge cover and hang tag booklet. However it was missing some correct parts. I bought this '76 originally for a keeper, but when I took it apart to check it out... I discovered some wood putty in the neck pocket. The seller apologised and we settled on a partial refund. He owned the '76 for 12 years and never knew it was there... so of course he didn't know why it is there either. I can't figure it out... it doesn't appear to be very deep at all. The only thing I can guess is that it compensates somehow for a typical 70s neck pocket deficiency. It's on the "floor" of the pocket at the back. Therefore the neck is snug and stable. I don't think the small amount of filler is a problem in any way... but I am SO anal that it caused me to end up using the parts to salvage the other '76 and the '75. It's a shame, that '76 body is the lightest of all of them, and the finish and grain is very pleasing. I couldn't bear to part it out entirely, so I put it back together with AV reissue parts. I will picture and disclose the neck pocket when I sell it, but I am 100% certain it is not a problem. It will cause someone to get a vintage Tele for the price of a reissue, though.

The '75 is my last remaining Tele. I stripped a foot of poly off it earlier this year and the ash is beautiful. I cleaned up the HB rout and currently it is sanded and sealed awaiting a blonde refin. It will be all original except neck HB and 1-ply black pickguard, and with original case and accessories. I plan to keep it.

So that's my long Tele saga, and probably explains why I was so thrilled yesterday when I finally got two of them ready to move out. I've been up to my ears in Teles and parts for a year now. Now it's down to one, and with light at the end, I am motivated to press on with the refin and get that one done.

Then on to my Jazzmaster!    :)
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Re: Telecasters

Post by Sauerkraut » Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:21 am

I've got a Tele too, black  '04 American series with maple neck and Novak pickups.

YAY!

anyone else have one with Novaks?

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Re: Telecasters

Post by pullover » Mon Oct 09, 2006 5:10 pm

I tried to put Novaks in mine, but it didn't work out. I wound up using Nocasters which are cool. The neck pickup on the Novaks had a broken wire, which I don't know how that could happen if he really tests them before sending them out. I sent it back and tried the bridge pickup and the base was seperated from the pickup which caused really loud noise when you tapped the body, so I sent it back. When I got the new neck pickup it had scratches and wrench marks on the chrome cover (strike 3, yer out) so I told him to forget it and he gave my money back. Nice guy but I can't say anything positive about his craftsmanship.
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Re: Telecasters

Post by aen » Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:48 pm

I have 3 teles! 

Image

Image

And my tele custom II which is yet to be photographed.

I do have 2 offsets, though, and ajazz bass, which is like a humongous offset, right?
I prefer their older stuff.

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Re: Telecasters

Post by Sauerkraut » Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:14 am

pullover wrote: I tried to put Novaks in mine, but it didn't work out. I wound up using Nocasters which are cool. The neck pickup on the Novaks had a broken wire, which I don't know how that could happen if he really tests them before sending them out. I sent it back and tried the bridge pickup and the base was seperated from the pickup which caused really loud noise when you tapped the body, so I sent it back. When I got the new neck pickup it had scratches and wrench marks on the chrome cover (strike 3, yer out) so I told him to forget it and he gave my money back. Nice guy but I can't say anything positive about his craftsmanship.
I'm sorry to hear that, mine came in perfect condition, maybe he just had a bad (couple of) day(s)? At least he didn't have a problem sending your money back.

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Re: Telecasters

Post by benecol » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:51 am

I've had more teles than anything else (at first, I wanted to be Judah Bauer, so I bought teles, then I wanted to be in Sonic Youth so I bought a Jaguar, now I've got an SG because I want to be Sister Rosetta Tharpe). Currently only got my 70s Cimar 72 tele copy (Cimar became Ibanez, a fair quality MIJ tele copy). Have had various teles and thinlines in the past: my words of wisdom are 1) Be very careful with the tele deluxe (2xhums) RIs, the build quality on all the ones I (and others) tried was appalling, especially the wonky bridge and 2) The current CIJ 52 teles are ace; the cheaper one is better than the expensive one, as it has pukka 52ri p'ups instead of texas specials. Just buy some brass saddles.

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Re: Telecasters

Post by mezcalhead » Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:55 am

Hey, my first ever electric 6-string was a Cimar $trat copy. I played that thing in bands for years.
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Re: Telecasters

Post by benecol » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:18 am

It's the tele that refuses to die, acts as a p'up test bed, slide guitar, Nashville tuning, general muckabout guitar. Thinking about putting a Dano neck on it, a la Pete Townshend, as it's almost fretless now. From reading my other gear posts, you might think I'm sponsored by Danelectro - I'm not, honest.

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Re: Telecasters

Post by mezcalhead » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:20 pm

Oh, when you say ..
benecol wrote: Be very careful with the tele deluxe (2xhums) RIs, the build quality on all the ones I (and others) tried was appalling
.. are you talking about the MIMs? I've got a MIM thinline w single coils (the '69 RI) and I'm very happy with the build quality and sound of it.
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Re: Telecasters

Post by benecol » Fri Oct 20, 2006 3:16 am

mezcalhead wrote: Oh, when you say ..
benecol wrote: Be very careful with the tele deluxe (2xhums) RIs, the build quality on all the ones I (and others) tried was appalling
.. are you talking about the MIMs? I've got a MIM thinline w single coils (the '69 RI) and I'm very happy with the build quality and sound of it.
No, not at all - I'm on about the solid body, strat neck 72 deluxe with two hums. Mine was gash, and have heard of several issues on the tele forums, mainly with misaligned bridges. I used to have a MIJ '69 thinline RI and loved it to bits, and have been impressed with all the MIM Fenders except the 72 deluxe.

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Re: Telecasters

Post by palbjorno » Fri Oct 20, 2006 6:33 am

I love my tele's. I have three: A '72 Custom reissue, a japanese thinline, and a Morgan Mastercaster with strat pickups all the way. The custom is getting a bigsby soon, and the thinline will be converted to a 12-string.

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Re: Telecasters

Post by dinosaur » Sat Oct 21, 2006 6:45 am

I have two right now.  One is a parts guitar I put together 10-12 years ago with a tele body and strat neck, still going strong.  I also picked up a used Muddy Waters tele off Ebay last year, and that is one of the best bang for the buck guitars I have ever seen.  I absolutely love it and play it as much as my offsets (pretend you didnt read that).

I also second the fact that the recent MIJ 52 RI teles are fantastic.  I've played several and lusted after every one.  They come in a pretty sweet white blonde as well.

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Re: Telecasters

Post by ohm-men » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:24 pm

My tele started out a joke after a friend donated me a old Stagg tele neck.
I told him I would make a fitting body for it...ha,ha....

So after some months of painstaking work I had made a thinline tele with double routing, since I could not get my hands on any light wood. I got three big slaps of african paduak from a coleauge of mine. So it had to be thinline to keep the weight down.

But it turned out great. I now got a tele that is a superb guitar for less then 100 Euro. I traded some stuff for all the hardware and ended up with a Fender Alnico neck pu and a SD Quater pounder in the bridge. knobs were donated by another friend (who said I was crazy...)
I reshaped a stock pick up guard in order to make it fit with the F-hole I cut.

This Tele is now one of my favorite guitars.

I just bought 3 guitars for 50 bucks (some guy cleaned his attick and found these 3 electric guitars there, one Hopf (German 60ties guitar), a nameless hollow body and a Daytone strat. They were all taken apart it seams, but all the parts are there, so I could not ressist. I'll probably sell them after I restored them)
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Re: Telecasters

Post by fullerplast » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:24 pm

I
just bought 3 guitars for 50 bucks (some guy cleaned his attick and found these 3 electric guitars there, one Hopf (German 60ties guitar), a nameless hollow body and a Daytone strat. They were all taken apart it seams, but all the parts are there, so I could not ressist. I'll probably sell them after I restored them)
I LOVE deals like that.   :-*

I once bought a plastic bodied Hagstrom I for $20 from the closet in the back of a junk store. The lower horn was broken off and a pickup was missing. I bought a piece of self-adhesive aluminum screen, stuck it on the back of the horn, molded it into the right shape, and covered it with epoxy. Once I sanded and painted the repair you couldn't tell. Then I stuck Tele pickups and a tuna-matic in it, sealed tuners, and actually re-upholstered the vinyl back. It was a beotch to do and I was so proud of that little thing. It was so cool... until my wife accidentally stepped on it and broke it in pieces. I had left it on the floor.

:(

I must be getting old. I've already told this story somewhere on the forum.  :-[

Regardless, the point is... its so much fun to salvage the pitiful overlooked less-popular models. You can get them cheap and ya don't feel bad to modify and/or use non-original parts.
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